Janice Nix, 67, has been discovered responsible of the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard nearly 50 years in the past.
Jurors heard Janice Nix was ‘livid’ after Andrea ignored directions to not go away the home (Picture: MPS)
A stepmother killed a five-year-old lady by scalding her in a scorching bathtub as a punishment nearly 50 years in the past, jurors have discovered. Janice Nix, 67, was discovered responsible of the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard by forcing her into the bathtub in Thornton Heath, south London, in 1978.
Isleworth Crown Courtroom heard Andrea’s loss of life was handled as an accident till her older brother Desmond Bernard went to police in 2022 with a brand new account of what occurred. Nix, of Clapham, south London, shook her head as she was additionally convicted of cruelty to Mr Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was seven to 9 years previous.
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She might be seen crying hysterically within the dock after jurors left the courtroom.
Andrea was ‘talkative, courageous and really good’ (Picture: MPS/PA Wire)
Jurors heard that on June 6, 1978, Nix was “livid” after Andrea ignored directions to not go away the home and to assist clear as a substitute. Nix shouted at Andrea in an “extraordinarily loud” voice earlier than beating her, the court docket heard.
Mr Bernard, 56, mentioned he later heard the bathtub working. He went on: “I might hear Janice shouting ‘get within the bathtub’, and I might hear Andrea saying ‘the bathtub is simply too scorching, mummy’.
“I might hear Janice shouting, ‘Get within the bathtub, get within the bathtub,’ after which I heard screaming and splashing. Then I heard the screaming cease, and I might hear Janice calling Andrea to ‘get up, get up’.”
Requested by prosecutor Kerry Broome how Nix sounded, he replied: “She sounded scared.”
Mr Bernard mentioned he then entered the toilet and noticed Nix cradling Andrea, who was “limp” and wrapped in a towel. He added: “I might see pores and skin falling off her.”
The court docket heard Andrea died almost six weeks after arriving at hospital with burns to 50% of her physique. A burns knowledgeable instructed the trial {that a} little one uncovered to water scorching sufficient to trigger Andrea’s accidents would instinctively attempt to get out by standing up, not stay seated.
Nix was arrested at London Heathrow Airport (Picture: MPS/PA Wire)
Prosecutors argued this meant Nix will need to have forcibly held elements of Andrea’s physique underwater.
Nix, then referred to as Janice Thomas, was in her late teenagers and had been in a relationship with the kids’s father, additionally named Desmond Bernard, and was, in impact, their stepmother, the court docket heard.
Jurors heard that through the 1978 inquest investigation, Nix had initially claimed Andrea took a shower on her personal and later complained of itchy legs earlier than fainting, jurors heard.
However she admitted throughout her trial to giving a false account of the occasions to the coroner as a result of she was “in a panic” over having did not supervise Andrea whereas she took a shower.
She instructed the court docket: “I realised I had accomplished one thing I shouldn’t have accomplished: I ought to have been with Andrea. I used to be younger, and I used to be clearly not pondering. [In] hindsight now, I see my negligence as an adolescent.”
The defendant mentioned she didn’t on the time realise the bathwater was scalding scorching, including: “All I do know is that she was in misery, her legs have been purple, they’d bubbles on them… I didn’t understand how scorching the water was.”
Throughout a 2022 police interview, Nix gave a model of occasions that differed “considerably” from her unique assertion, in keeping with the Metropolitan Police.
She additionally claimed the coroner discovered Andrea’s loss of life was due to an overheated bathtub brought on by a defective boiler — one thing not talked about within the report.
Mr Bernard mentioned in an announcement after the verdicts that his sister was “talkative, courageous and really good”. He mentioned that he had determined to return ahead about his sister’s loss of life to carry a burden which was not his to hold.
Within the assertion, he mentioned: “When Andrea and I lived with Janice and pa, we have been in fixed concern once we have been alone together with her, as a result of she wouldn’t abuse us in entrance of my father, mom, grandmother or any buddies. So, we knew we have been secure if another person was current.
“We have been instructed that if we instructed anybody in regards to the beatings and abuse, we might get it worse. She was very calculated in what she was doing to us.”
Mr Bernard mentioned the abuse included being slapped, hit with a belt, being burnt with a cigarette, being hit with a metallic pot, bitten and compelled to eat cat meals.
He mentioned he and Andrea have been additionally made to sit down in a chilly bathtub and keep in it regardless of shivering. He added: “This therapy has left psychological scars which I’m nonetheless therapeutic from.”
Welcoming the conviction, Mr Bernard mentioned Nix now has to take duty for her actions, one thing she had not accomplished as much as then.
Nix was arrested at Heathrow Airport on February 18, 2025, after arriving on a flight from Antigua, and was charged later that day. She had denied each the costs of manslaughter and cruelty to a toddler. She was remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.
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